Current Events opinions

Just wondering peoples thoughts on the current events of late:

Namely the Showdown with Iraq, the North Korea crisis, and Bush's stance on affirmative action.
Of course, opinions only please....NO FLAMES!!!

Personally, from a British point of view, I feel Tony Blair has enough problems at home to deal with (gun/drug crime, burglars allowed to walk free from court, police stabbed to death by bogus aslyum seekers because wearing a protective vest would offend his human rights, fire crews on strike etc, etc) and should concentrate on those rather than picking fights abroad, whether or not your best friend is very big and feels they're very butch.

In fact, I'm so ticked off with the situation, we are actually emigrating to New Zealand in the next six-twelve months to get to a "safer" country!

Diana

Diana - are you really emigrating to NZ? I am from Christchurch - if you need anything, let me know!

Also for our Canadian friends, I wonder what they think when they learned their Premier got busted for driving drunk?

I think Bush is determined to have this war for whatever reason,and while we are looking one direction, lets hope we don't get attacked from another.

As proven, by 9/11, no place is really "safe". These maniacs, with chemical and nuclear capabilities must be contained.

As for affirmative action - NO ONE should be discriminated against, because of race or gender. In the case of university admissions, the PERSONS, with the highest test scores and grades should get the slots. The same goes for jobs - the best qualified PERSON.

I don't believe in lowering standards or setting quotas.

Originally posted by hissy
Also for our Canadian friends, I wonder what they think when they learned their Premier got busted for driving drunk?

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Hissy, there are 13 Premiers in Canada, one for each Province. The person you are referring to is Gordon Campbell the Premier of British Columbia. Just showing you to take note that there are many Premiers.

It would be the same as if I said back to you: I wonder what my U.S. friends think when 'their' Governor got arrested. As you can see, there would be confusion unless you specified which Governor rather than unknowingly sounding like there is only one.

In Ontario, it was a story that was mentioned on the day it happened. Since then there is not much discussion, since war and the economy are the top headliners. But I am sure that in Mr. Campbell's Province of British Columbia, it is a bigger story.

Even though Canada has 13 Provinces, Canada is seen in the media as having 4! The West, Ontario, Quebec and The Maritimes. Ontario is seen and hated by many other provinces because of the political and economic worlds revolve around this province. As a result, other provinces feel they do not get a fair shake since Ontario is seen to be the place of power.

That's my lesson for today. Come back next week, when we discuss the burning issue: Should Quebec separate from the rest of Canada?

Originally posted by dtolle
Just wondering peoples thoughts on the current events of late:

Namely the Showdown with Iraq, the North Korea crisis, and Bush's stance on affirmative action. Of course, opinions only please...

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I'd really like to participate, but I'm going to get myself in trouble. I'll step away from this one.

I have to go with Kass on this. I dont want to state my opinion because I will end up flaming.
As they say, 'Silence is Golden', and in my case, it is.


BuNN - Zippity Zipp pfft.

Further to my post to Hissy, the biggest story affecting the news media in Canada right now is the military hearing in Louisiana concerning the death of 4 Canadian soldiers and the wounding of 18 soldiers by American pilots during training in Afghanistan.

For those of you who are not familiar with this story, here is a link:


Afghanistan Deaths

My question to the Americans on this board is how much air play this story received in your media.

I am not going to get in on much of this, either, I usually end up making someone mad.
I do agree with katl8d on affirmative action. I think the best qualified person should get the job, placment in schools, whatever, no matter what age, gender, or race they are.
I worked my way through EMT school, scored in the top 20 in my state, was first in my class, and was replaced on my job by someone that had to take the state board exam 3 times in order to pass it. There was a program in place that would pay half the salary of a minority person for 2 years, if given jobs in certain regulated fields. Fair? This was years ago, but it has only gotten worse.

Twenty-five years ago, my first husband was fired, from his job at a construction company. The company had just gotten a federal interstate highway contract and had to have a certain percentage of minorities on the payroll. When Jim went in to pick up his paycheck, a newly-hired black man was in his job.

Of course, that's not the reason that was given for his firing but, he had been working there, for quite a while, with no problems.

At Bill's company, they have several women driving haul trucks. Most of them are hard-working people, who get along with everyone. One, however, spends her time trying to create a situation whereby she can file a sexual harrassment complaint. Knowing this, none of the guys even speak to her, except to say "hello".

Affirmative action can get so carried away. There is a really bad school district in the Quad Cities (for the last few years it has been ranked LAST in Iowa). Some parents who live in this district pay tuition for their children to go to the neighboring district which is very good. Now they have passed a regulation that only black children can go out of district. That is so insane. Why single out one minority? Supposedly they are trying to keep test scores up. So they are giving some children an advantage while calling them stupid by implying it is their scores that makes the schools rank so low. If that's not an abusive case of affirmative action, I don't know what is.

Oh come now ladies. We've proven over and over that we can have differing opinions without resorting to personal attacks. We can still like each other without agreeing. I would like to hear your opinions, especially from the wide variety of countries we have represented here.

As for my opinion... "Those who do not remember history are bound to repeat it." I see way too many parallels between Saddam and Hitler, between the stunts that N. Korea is pulling and what Japan did. I do hold out hope for a political solution to the N. Korea situation, but Saddam won't listen to anything but brute force. With the new discoveries by the UN Inspectors, it seems pretty clear that they are lying AGAIN about what weapons they do and do not have. Something does need to be done about the situation, to stop him before he does get a nuclear bomb. I saw an interesting Biography of him on The History Channel last week, and I don't think that the average person knows the atrocities that man has inflicted, the level of defiance that he has repeatedly shown to the UN, the tyranny he has imposed on his people.

For Affirmative Action, I agree with Cindy and Rebecca. The most qualified person should get the job or be accepted into college. Period. I've always thought that Affirmative Action is nothing but reverse discrimination against white males.

I sure hope Saddam doesn't have those weapons... Though I strongly suspect he does I did get the gas mask for Ron (it's horrifying! It's a black gas mask with something that pumps the air through the filter. It's for babies and it makes me shudder every time I look at the box). I don't have a gas mask for me yet though. I need to pay a fine for losing the one I had and I just don't have the time or energy to deal with that right now.


Trust me this war is the last thing I need right now. But still I think it needs to be done. If he's not stopped now he's only going to get stronger and get more WMD.

Oh wow....

Anne, you post really hurts my heart!!

I'm soo sorry you have to live in a state of fear for yourself and your child!

Breaks my heart

God Bless us all

Kassandra, the national news had been covering the trial of the Airmen who "accidently" bombed the Canadian Forces. It isn't a top story, but they are at least showing both sides of the testimony so far.

I have to say, most Americans are pretty ignorant about anything outside of the US. Unfortunatly, you can't really blame them too much. Our education system does not deem international history, politics or even geography important enough to teach. They are cutting more and more of any history, politics and geography in order to teach to standardized tests and to teach politically correct culture appreciation (i.e. not anything about Christmas is allowed, but they have to teach about Hannukah and Kwaanza, and will spend a good week on that). Our newscasts don't cover anything that doesn't directly relate back to the US. The only possible exception is any kind of terrorist attack, which still does relate back to the US since we have a "War on Terror" going on. The only way to get any real international news is on the internet or watching BBC America.

Heidi is absolutely correct when she says we don't put any emphasis on history or current events. In my district, the focus is on math and reading through 8th grade. After that there is a social studies and science curriculum.

Why do we do this? Because our math and reading scores are low. Nobody seems to realize that students can get as much reading and math from science, and you can often go deeper, not just reading the words but analyzing the content. Unfortunately, as much as I disagree with this lack of concern for social studies and science, I must do what the administration tells me.

And we wonder why some of our students think Philadelphia is a continent. I do plan to do some social studies, because I just can't stand the fact that so many of my students lack what I consider basic knowledge.

Ok, I sort of got off topic, but I really feel we are doing our young people a disservice by not exposing them to all the subject areas when they are young.

Back on topic: got my copy of Newsweek today. The cover story is on affirmative action. The are "pro" and "con" columns. The "pro" was written by the president of Columbia University and the "con" is by Armstrong Williams.

It is interesting to see what a successful black person has to say about affirmative action. I have, always, had a lot of respect for Armstrong Williams and Ken Hamblin. They don't want handouts.

My question to the Americans on this board is how much air play this story received in your media

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Kass -

I live near Fort Campbell, Home of the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles, and believe me that the death of the Canadians weighs heavily on all of our hearts. Something is seriously wrong with the American Military's training of late. Too many accidents are happening and too many friendly fire casualties are occurring. My husband is a Viet Nam Veteran (Awarded Bronze Medal For Valor). Our son just finished his AIT training and many corners were cut in his training classes, even shortening some by a couple of weeks. My husband is appalled by his son's lack of knowledge in his job. It's a serious problem.

Rest assured, the Canadian deaths are not going unnoticed!